UFC Fight Night 97 cancelled after Penn pulls out of the main event.

After the veteran mixed martial artist B. J. ‘The Prodigy’ Penn pulled out of the UFC Fight Night planned for October 15th in Manila, the UFC announced on October 6th that the whole card is officially cancelled.

The company issued the following statement, regarding the sudden cancellation:

“Athletes scheduled to compete on the Oct. 15 card will be rebooked at upcoming UFC events in the near future. Each athlete set to compete on Oct. 15 will also receive compensation due to the card being rescheduled.”

In the statement, the UFC also confirmed that the calendar for 2016 is finalised and will, therefore discuss future dates for the event. The card was initially disrupted by Penn’s injury that ruled him out of the Ricardo Lamas fight.

Despite searching for a replacement and bantamweight Bryan Caraway reportedly offering himself as one, the UFC finally decided that pulling the card was the best option; citing the loss of the main event as the reason.

The statement also included a quote from the Prodigy himself regarding the injury.

"I suffered a rib injury in training and I apologise to the fans in Manila who were expecting to watch me compete.”

Penn further said that he hopes to be back in the octagon soon. This is the third time Penn has withdrawn from a fight after his reported comeback.